Jan 24, 2011South Korean businesses can now track and trace items throughout the supply chain, simply by waving a mobile smart phone over a product, following the release of an RFID reader Universal Subscriber Identity Module (USIM) card. Developed by a consortium that includes South Korean mobile telephony and communications provider SK Telecom, fabless semiconductor company Radiopulse and mobile solutions firm Ajantech, the USIM card features a 900 MHz RFID reader chip made by Phychips. Described by the consortium as a world's first, the card enables mobile phones to read passive ultrahigh-frequency (UHF) tags complying with the EPC Gen 2 (ISO 18000-6C) standard, and to serve as a substitute for traditional fixed interrogators. The consortium was commissioned in July 2009 by South Korea's Ministry of Knowledge Economy, to develop advanced RFID-related technologies.
Phones with the RFID reader USIM card have already been tested at Incheon International Airport's cargo terminal to track imports and exports. The phones are currently in use at five Korean companies to track bottles of whiskey, and are set to be rolled out early this year at South Korea's second-largest pharmaceutical firm.
Yoon Jin-Hee, the senior manager of SK Telecom's wireless personal area network (WPAN) development team, says existing RFID readers are often too expensive and heavy for consumers to easily use. A smart phone containing an RFID reader in the form of a USIM card, he notes, is lighter and easier to use than most other interrogators.
"Users simply need to operate the phone with an RFID reader USIM card inserted, and read tags attached to products via wireless connection," Jin-Hee states. "For instance, when a tag code is read, information is sent from the server through wireless networks like 3G and Wi-Fi, and appear on the user's mobile screen. It allows users to receive product history information, and helps confirm the authenticity of goods. If a dedicated application is already installed on the smart phone, information can be downloaded. If not, Smart Agent [software] provides a simple RFID service, such as text, image and hyperlink."
The RFID reader USIM card utilizes a serial peripheral interface (SPI) to control the connection between its USIM chip and its RFID reader chip, Jin-Hee explains. "The service can be provided through all handsets that support USIM," he says, "as it uses an ISO 7816 hardware interface, a standard interface for USIM to connect to application programs of handsets."
Using the RFID reader USIM card to track cargo throughout the terminal was more accurate and took significantly less time, Jin-Hee says. But one challenge the company faced was that the read range was only about 10 centimeters (4 inches). The USIM reader card's small dimensions (it is the same size as a standard USIM card—about 25 millimeters by 15 millimeters [1 inch by 0.6 inch]), puts constraints on the size of the reader antenna installed on the chip, which has an effect on the read range. To overcome form-factor limitations stemming from the card's size and thickness, the consortium has developed components such as the Integrated Passive Device (IPD) chip and a high-performance micro-antenna.
"We are aiming to increase the reading range, and are currently developing technologies to embed a power amplifier into the RFID reader USIM card," Jin-Hee says. "To enhance antenna performance, we are also making special design patterns to minimize radiation and improve efficiency. In addition to hardware improvements, we are also enhancing operating systems through software optimization—which, in turn, will increase both read range and performance." As the consortium is still working to overcome the problems involved, Jin-Hee says he can not speculate on what the ultimate read range might be.
Following the successful trial, SK Telecom began supplying RFID reader USIM cards to five Korean whiskey companies, after the South Korean National Tax Service made it mandatory, in November 2010, to affix an RFID tag to every liquor bottle. SK Telecom also developed a mobile application to check the whiskey's authentication, in order to prevent the distribution of fake products and also prevent tax evasion. And early this year, the firm will begin providing the RFID reader USIM cards to Hanmi Pharmaceutical, South Korea's second-largest drug manufacturer, for inventory-management purposes.
The RFID reader USIM card is currently only available to South Korean business users, though Jin-Hee says it also has enormous potential in the consumer market. As the uses of such cards increase, SK Telecom plans to begin developing additional mobile applications to address different use cases.
Mobile phones fitted with the RFID reader USIM card, Jin-Hee says, "could be applied to business models pertaining to verifying the authenticity of liquor to protect consumers, tracking and providing production history of food products like beef, preventing the illegal distribution of medicine and production of counterfeit medical products, providing tourist information and verifying authenticity of clothes."
According to Jin-Hee, the card currently sells for 42,000 Korean won ($37) apiece—approximately 2 percent of the cost of a portable RFID handheld reader (most frequently an RFID-enabled PDA)—and provides portability and convenience. The RFID reader USIM card can be installed in both Android-based smart phones, as well as mobile handsets that are not smart phones. However, SK Telecom also developed its own prototype smart phone already embedded with the RFID reader chip. The prototype contains two RFID reader chips—one that can read 900 MHz passive tags complying with the EPC Gen 2 (ISO 18000-6C) standard, and another that can read high-frequency (HF) 13.56 MHz passive tags complying with the ISO 14443 and ISO 15693 RFID standards—thereby eliminating the need for multiple separate readers. SK Telecom has developed two trial versions of its RFID-enabled smart phone, and is currently assessing its commercialization plan for the device.
Last year, SK Telecom announced that it was taking aim at the growing market for mobile payments in the Asia/Pacific region; to that end, it developed various mobile financial services leveraging RF-based technologies, such as a USIM card for such applications as mobile-payment services (see RFID News Roundup: SK Telecom Pushes Advancement of Mobile Payments in Asia). In 2006, the company's collaboration with Korean mobile operator KTF led to the creation of a USIM card that integrates a 13.56 MHz smart-card solution into a cell phone so that the device could be used for such tasks as banking, riding public transportation, carrying out stock transactions and purchasing goods and services (see Philips, SK Telecom to Test NFC in Seoul).
